To be an Olympic-level entrepreneur, you need to control as many factors as you can.

You don’t always notice this in some sports, but in other sports it becomes much clearer: There are millions of little factors that can improve or take away from an athlete’s ability to win. For the 2010 Olympics, external factors include temperature, snow cover (and the type snow), elevation, and humidity; while internal examples include health, nutrition, rest, oxygen intake, and more. Athletes will do whatever they can to control as many of these factors as possible, or to allow for them. They can’t control the temperature but they can bring different types of clothes and they can decide what to wear according to the forecast. They can’t control the elevation but serious athletes can train at the same elevation as the one in which they will be competing. Where you really see this happening is in the biathlon, where shooters control their breathing to reduce their heart rate and the impact it can have on hitting a target.

Olympic-level entrepreneurs need to do the same thing: Identify as many factors that influence their business and figure out how to control (or mitigate) them. External and internal factors are as relevant here and include the economy, customer trends, competitors, as well as health, nutrition, and rest.

This week, why not take some time and list every factor that influences your business (yes, it will be a huge list) and then figure out how you can control as many factors as possible.